The Great Depression was a time of hardships for almost everyone in the United States during that era. One of these people was George Dodge. During an interview with Rosalie Smith he said talked about the struggles of his poor family. He said that the depression after the Civil War was the "The Great Depression." His family made the little money they had by selling dairy products that his mother made. Things didn't get better for them until the 80's. Although he doesn't think that new technology is bad he thinks that modern day people have it far too easy, and that they wouldn't satisfied with what they would have had when he was younger. He talks about how less young people drank and smoked in his days than during modern days. He ended the intervew when he said that the old days were harder than they were when the interview was conducted (January 24, 1939), but they were much happier in his mind. Another person who was affected by this era was Sherman Dolman. In his interview, with George Hartman, he had his own points of view of the Great Depression compared to George Dodge. He said the worst of the depression was in the late 70's compared when the interview took place in 1939. Dolman said that he had to live off sorgum and corn-meal. Also he mentioned that his clothes were barefooted most of time, so obviously he did not have shoes to wear. His point of view on the depression was that it was caused by grasshoppers. Probably because in 1875 he experienced a local train breakdown caused by a horde of grasshoppers which greased the track so thick that the train couldn't run. Sherman had this assumption probably because he only had a 4 year education. This shows that Sherman had no idea what was actually going on in the country at the time, only what was happening to him in his own local area. Yet another person who was affected in this era was Jacob Stein. During his interview with B. Hathaway he described his battle with his former gang and how he is now a bum living on the streets. His boss, whom he called Mike the Boss, fired him and tried to put him in a "nut" house for losing an election. He was sent to "Bel-le-vue" but got out early as nothing was wrong with him. At the Primary Day election one of Mike Boss' men came up to him and gave him a couple ballots to hold; within a few moments the cops were on him and arrested him. At his trial he testified that he was set up and that one of Mike Boss' men gave him the ballots. However due to the number of gang members willing to give a false testimony he lost and was proclaimed crazy yet again. He now had no jo b, he had lost everything and was now a bum on the streets during the Great Depression.
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